Over winter break, I rediscovered the joy of family dinners. Nearly every night while I was home, I would help my parents make dinner and then sit down to a ~ 1-hour meal.
I recently received a copy of the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook, from which we cooked a number of fun and yummy dishes.
This daily ritual served as a way to slow down, be present, and connect with my family each day.
This is in stark contrast to school, where I cook much less, and rarely spend more than 30 minutes before diving back into homework or my procrastination project of choice. When I do cook, the meals are often uninspired with the sole purpose of providing nourishment.
On one hand, this is great. Improved efficiency. If you're like me, you're constantly trying to squeeze as much as you can out of each day. But paradoxically I think this behavior often has the opposite effect on me. This addiction doing and taking advantage of each moment can lead us to never slowing down enough to be present in the moment.
There is an abundance of scientific research to back up the benefits of longer, slower family dinners. Over the past 60 years, the average dinner time of Americans has shifted from 90 minutes to 12 minutes. What are we actually doing with those extra 78 minutes?
I'm still trying to figure out ways to incorporate this into my daily life at school. The homework can wait. The blog post will get done.
What's more important than spending time with people you care about and eating delicious food?
